Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 141

[509:1] "The Christ of Paul was not a person, but an _idea_; he took no pains to learn the facts about the individual Jesus. He actually boasted that the Apostles had taught him nothing. _His_ Christ was an ideal conception, evolved from his own feeling and imagination, and taking on new powers and attributes from year to year to suit each new emergency."

(John W. Chadwick.)

[510:1] This subject is considered in Appendix D.

[510:2] _Scythia_ was a name employed in ancient times, to denote a vast, indefinite, and almost unknown territory north and east of the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Sea of Aral.

[510:3] See Herodotus, book 4, ch. 82.

[510:4] See Dupuis, p. 264.

[510:5] See Knight's Anct. Art and Mythology, p. 96, and Mysteries of Adoni, p. 90.

[510:6] See Dupuis, p. 264.

[510:7] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 7.

[510:8] See Ibid. vol. i. p. 27.

[510:9] Ibid.

[510:10] Ibid. vol. i. p. 2, and Bonwick, p. 155.

[510:11] See Chambers, art. "Jonah."

[510:12] See Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 152, and Goldzhier, p. 280.

[510:13] See Curious Myths, p. 264.

[511:1] "Whilst, in one part of the Christian world, the chief objects of interest were the _human_ nature and _human_ life of Jesus, in another part of the Christian world the views taken of his person because so _idealistic_, that his humanity _was reduced to a phantom without reality_. The various _Gnostic_ systems generally agreed in saying that the Christ was an _aeon_, the redeemer of the _spirits_ of men, and that he had little or no contact with their corporeal nature."

(A. Reville: Hist. of the Dogma of the Deity of Jesus.)

[511:2] Epiphanius says that there were TWENTY heresies BEFORE CHRIST, and there can be no doubt that there is much truth in the observation, for most of the rites and doctrines of the Christians of all sects existed before the time of Jesus of Nazareth.

[512:1] "Accipis avengelium? et maxime. Proinde ergo et natum accipis Christum. Non ita est. Neque enim sequitur ut si evangelium accipio, idcirco et natum accipiam Christum. Ergo non putas c.u.m ex Maria Virgine esse? Manes dixit, Absit ut Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum per naturalia pudenda mulieris de scendisse confitear." (Lardner's Works, vol. iv. p.

20.)

[512:2] "I maintain," says he, "that the Son of G.o.d was _born_: why am I not ashamed of maintaining such a thing? Why! because it is itself a shameful thing--I maintain that the Son of G.o.d _died_: well, _that_ is wholly credible because it is monstrously absurd. I maintain that after having been buried, _he rose again_: and _that_ I take to be absolutely true, _because it was manifestly impossible_."

[512:3] King's Gnostics, p. 1.

[512:4] I. John, iv. 2, 3.

[512:5] II. John, 7.

[512:6] 1st Book Hermas: Apoc., ch. iii.

[512:7] Chapter II.

[513:1] Chapter II.

[513:2] Chapter III.

[513:3] Chapter III.

[513:4] I. Timothy, iii. 16.

[513:5] Irenaeus, speaking of them, says: "They hold that men ought not to confess him who _was crucified_, but him who came in the form of man, _and was supposed to be crucified_, and was called Jesus." (See Lardner: vol. viii. p. 353.) They could not conceive of "the first-begotten Son of G.o.d" being put to death on a cross, and suffering like an ordinary being, so they thought Simon of Cyrene must have been subst.i.tuted for him, as the ram was subst.i.tuted in the place of Isaac. (See Ibid. p.

857.)

[513:6] Apol. 1, ch. xxi.

[514:1] Koran, ch. iv.

[514:2] Chapter XX.

[514:3] Chapter II.

[514:4] Col. i. 23.

[514:5] I. Timothy, iii. 16.

[514:6] The authenticity of these Epistles has been freely questioned, even by the most conservative critics.

[515:1] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, and Chapter x.x.xVII., this work.

[515:2] Quoted by Max Muller: The Science of Relig., p. 228.

[515:3] Ch. cxvii.

[515:4] Ch. xxii.

[516:1] Ch. iv. 5.

[516:2] Josephus: Antiq., b. xx. ch. v. 2.

[516:3] It is true there was another Annas high-priest at Jerusalem, but this was when _Gratus_ was procurator of Judea, some twelve or fifteen years before Pontius Pilate held the same office. (See Josephus: Antiq., book xviii. ch. ii. 3.)

[516:4] See Appendix D.

[516:5] See the Martyrdom of Jesus, p. 100.

[516:6] According to Dio Ca.s.sius, Plutarch, Strabo and others, there existed, in the time of Herod, among the Roman Syrian heathens, a wide-spread and deep sympathy for a "_Crucified King of the Jews_." This was the youngest son of Aristobul, the heroic Maccabee. In the year 43 B. C., we find this young man--_Antigonus_--in Palestine claiming the crown, his cause having been declared just by Julius Caesar. Allied with the Parthians, he maintained himself in his royal position for six years against Herod and Mark Antony. At last, after a heroic life and reign, he fell in the hands of this Roman. "_Antony now gave the kingdom to a certain Herod, and, having stretched Antigonus on a cross and scourged him, a thing never done before to any other king by the Romans, he put him to death._" (Dio Ca.s.sius, book xlix. p. 405.)

The fact that all prominent historians of those days mention this extraordinary occurrence, and the manner they did it, show that it was considered one of Mark Antony's worst crimes: and that the sympathy with the "Crucified King" was wide-spread and profound. (See The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p. 106.)

Some writers think that there is a connection between this and the Gospel story; that they, in a certain measure, put Jesus in the place of Antigonus, just as they put Herod in the place of Kansa. (See Chapter XVIII.)

[517:1] Canon Farrar thinks that Josephus' silence on the subject of Jesus and Christianity, was as deliberate as it was dishonest. (See his Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 63.)